The geospatial project

Journal-Advocate staff

Posted:
11/24/2012 09:30:23 AM MST

Christy Fitzpatrick

Since Thanksgiving was this week, I first wanted to share some things I am thankful for in my STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) job at the CSU Engagement Center. I am thankful for the great kids I have had an opportunity to do STEM projects with. I am thankful for the wonderful, hard working and engaged 4-H agents and staff in northeast Colorado. No one works harder and if you have not met them, you should take time to do that. I am thankful for supportive parents and community members who help make STEM opportunities available for kids. I am thankful for the teachers I've worked with and grateful for the supportive folks at NJC. It's an old cliché that it takes a village to raise a child, but it's really true that here, a region is working to raise the next generation of STEM innovators.

Another event celebrated in mid-November is GIS Day. While not as well known as Thanksgiving, GIS Day --this year on Nov. 14 -- is a celebration that becomes familiar to more people each year. Officially, it is a day that professionals who use geographic information systems (GIS) in their work get together to share new ideas, techniques and applications.

And what is GIS? GIS combines computers, software, data and skilled users to look at spatial relationships among data. For example, making a map showing the numbers of youth younger than 18 in a given area allows planners to determine school district boundaries, possible locations for new schools or the most efficient school bus routes.

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Emergency management personnel can map places where homes are close to forests, look at locations of fire station locations and emergency shelters and determine what services might be missing in case of a wildfire. Public health officials map the spread of diseases and entrepreneurs use GIS to pick the best place for a new business.

In the past 10 years, GIS Day has also become a youth celebration as more young people develop an interest in geospatial activities. One familiar example is the growing popularity of geo-caching using global positioning system (GPS) as a family activity.

A little more than 10 years ago, GPS/GIS became a 4-H project. Curriculum was developed, a nationwide youth tech team was formed and the 4-H Community Atlas website came online, all with the goal to introduce youth to the fun and the practical applications of geospatial technology through 4-H. ESRI, the company responsible for ArcView GIs software, has supported 4-H club community mapping projects for many years. Club volunteers and youth can write grants to get licenses for ArcView software that they can use for up to 18 months to do community projects. Hundreds of grantees around the country have used this to do community service projects like mapping emergency shelters and emergency evacuation routes, showing the availability of healthy foods and location of "food deserts" and designing community walking trails. They've also used them for inventorying the health of community trees, documenting erosion along river beds after floods and mapping local historical landmarks. 4-H youth in the geospatial project show their maps at county and state fairs to earn both 4-H and National Geographic awards. 4-H youth are invited to present at the annual ESRI Conference where thousands of adult participants hear them give talks about their projects.

One significant aspect of this project is its potential to help youth with future careers. GPS/GIS skills are used in workplaces in fields as diverse as agriculture, medicine, forestry, oceanography and marine biology, environmental science, city planning and law enforcement. In fact, almost every discipline uses GIS data, and the need for geospatial professionals is expected to grow significantly in the future. Youth who learn some of these skills before college have a head start if they decide to specialize in the field and just knowing how to find and use GIS data and maps is an advantage in almost every job.

How can we make this opportunity available to youth in our area? We need adults who would like to work with youth on GPS/GIS projects. Whether you already work in this field or would like to learn more about it, if working with young people to introduce them to the world of geospatial technology sounds exciting, please contact me at the Regional Engagement Center, (970) 522-7207, to learn how to get started.

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